Only if grandparents pay

We have one in college (grad 2017) and one in $40k private and we make about $550K. It’s doable but not easy because we pay the private out of salary and the college out of part salary/part 529. I think it would be really hard on your income to make it work and still do other things! We don’t get grandparent tuition help but one grandparent has paid for overseas travel for us and school trips/camps for our kids occasionally.

Our kids have been in private all the way though and we didn’t start at our current income of course so it has always meant figuring it out year by year. We make decent money now and my husband has a position that will continue to grow (we are younger than many of our private school parent peers) so I’m feeling ok about our ability to pay but we definitely have conversations all the time about how much we would have if we didn’t pay $80-100k in cash to schools each year. That being said, our kids are extremely happy so we don’t dwell on it and we focus on the future (3 years from now we will be down to one tuition!).

Don't forget all of the additional expenses, like transportation (if you work and need your children to use a bus), aftercare, computers and other technology, class trips and textbooks. The 40K tuition is just the beginning.

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Anonymous wrote:We live in upper NW and planned on sending our kid to public school all the way through, but recently switched over to a $20K private for a specific curriculum not available in the public. We make about $350K with only one child, but still feel the pinch. We do some discretionary spending--we like to travel abroad, take ski vacations, etc., so this would be tough on a lower salary while paying for private. YMMV.

Yeah, I don't consider a lifestyle with travel abroad and ski vacations to be a "pinch." Those are expensive lifestyle choices.

PP here. Not complaining much—even with six figures in college/med school loans, we feel fortunate. Just chimed in to say that we planned on public, so even on our salary, recent switch to private is noticeable to our pocketbooks. There is no way we could afford a 40K school given our mortgage, retirement savings, etc. we’d have to make a drastic lifestyle change.

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Anonymous wrote:We make around 365k and would not be able to send two kids to expensive privates. We are considering private high school for just one of the kids but that would only be for four years and we make more than you.

Wow, where is all your money going?

Just normal expenses. Mortgage is $3200/month and we save 2000k a month for college. Old cars. But we don't have an extra 80k a year for private school.

That isn't normal expenses if you are if you are on that income and cannot afford it. You could but may need to reduce in other areas.

We have no extravagant expenses. Our monthly take home is around 15k and we could pay for one tuition out of that (which we plan to do for high school) Paying for two would be irresponsible. You are probably right that if we made significant sacrifices we could pay for two but we wouldn't have any cushion for the things that arise (like suddenly having to replace a car or a roof or a couple of appliances at the same time).

Again, I don't get it as we make $200K, easily put our kid in a $15K a year school, plus private therapies and still saved for retirement, college and house repairs. Makes no sense. We can easily pay cash for a new car now, with just in our checking so how could you not pay for a roof or few appliances.

We could also easily afford 15k. But the question is whether 80k is doable. So that is a 65k after tax difference. We also have therapies for both of our kids.

So what is your take home? I would think 80k would be half your take home or close to it. That leaves not very much for everything else. Seems kind of crazy to me.

Not pp but it’s a terrible idea to keep a new car amount of money in your checking account and it makes me wonder if you are really as financially savvy as you think you are

Good for you!

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We make around 365k and would not be able to send two kids to expensive privates. We are considering private high school for just one of the kids but that would only be for four years and we make more than you.

Wow, where is all your money going?

Just normal expenses. Mortgage is $3200/month and we save 2000k a month for college. Old cars. But we don't have an extra 80k a year for private school.

That isn't normal expenses if you are if you are on that income and cannot afford it. You could but may need to reduce in other areas.

We have no extravagant expenses. Our monthly take home is around 15k and we could pay for one tuition out of that (which we plan to do for high school) Paying for two would be irresponsible. You are probably right that if we made significant sacrifices we could pay for two but we wouldn't have any cushion for the things that arise (like suddenly having to replace a car or a roof or a couple of appliances at the same time).

Again, I don't get it as we make $200K, easily put our kid in a $15K a year school, plus private therapies and still saved for retirement, college and house repairs. Makes no sense. We can easily pay cash for a new car now, with just in our checking so how could you not pay for a roof or few appliances.

We are $250-275-ish and we don’t pay tuition (grandparents). It’s completely fine, not a super tight budget, but far from unlimited spending/travel.

I think if we had to pay one it would be tight but doable. Two would probably break us.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We make around 365k and would not be able to send two kids to expensive privates. We are considering private high school for just one of the kids but that would only be for four years and we make more than you.

Wow, where is all your money going?

Just normal expenses. Mortgage is $3200/month and we save 2000k a month for college. Old cars. But we don't have an extra 80k a year for private school.

That isn't normal expenses if you are if you are on that income and cannot afford it. You could but may need to reduce in other areas.

We have no extravagant expenses. Our monthly take home is around 15k and we could pay for one tuition out of that (which we plan to do for high school) Paying for two would be irresponsible. You are probably right that if we made significant sacrifices we could pay for two but we wouldn't have any cushion for the things that arise (like suddenly having to replace a car or a roof or a couple of appliances at the same time).

You sure can. Don't be so stressed about college savings. Let the kids have the best childhood you can possibly give them and if you think sending them to a private will make they enjoy their childhood learning do it. Just save enough for medical issues./emergencies.

I sent one kid through full private on 160 K and will do it all over again. My kid loved her childhood learning and now is a sophomore in UCLA

Anonymous wrote:We live in upper NW and planned on sending our kid to public school all the way through, but recently switched over to a $20K private for a specific curriculum not available in the public. We make about $350K with only one child, but still feel the pinch. We do some discretionary spending--we like to travel abroad, take ski vacations, etc., so this would be tough on a lower salary while paying for private. YMMV.

Yeah, I don't consider a lifestyle with travel abroad and ski vacations to be a "pinch." Those are expensive lifestyle choices.

you can't do two kids on 250K but you might get some financial aid. You can do one kid.

We really struggle for a few years sending two to private on $300k. We fit in just fine- there are a lot of families who struggle and sacrifice to make it work or have help from the grandparents. However, the tuition out too much of a strain on our finances. It was really tough not being able to travel or save as much as we’d like. After a few years, we switched to Catholic school at half the tuition. It’s not as good, but I think it’s a lot better than our public (which is considered a top public school). For us, it’s a happy medium. Our kids are doing well and we like the community. If money wasn’t an issue, we would have kept them in private, but it is.